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Summary of the impact

Research by Dr S. Karly Kehoe at the Scottish Catholic Archives and the
Highland Archive Centre (HAC) led to the discovery of source materials
relating to connections between Scottish Highlanders and plantation
slavery. Extensive archival work supported an exhibition at the HAC and a
resource pack which currently supports teachers delivering the 'Atlantic
Slave Trade' topic in the National 4/5 Curriculum for Excellence
(History). The pack supports the 'Mandatory Content & Illustrative
Areas' section and covers the 4 core areas for study: the Triangular
Trade; Britain and the Caribbean; the Captive's Experience and Slave
Resistance; the Abolitionist Campaigns.

Underpinning research

Research on the role played by Highland Scots in the system of
plantation slavery has been limited by a lack of known sources and because
the slave trade was carried on predominantly from English ports prior to
the parliamentary union. Dr Kehoe (Senior Lecturer in History) is a
specialist in the history of peripheries, citizenship and ethnic
identities in the British world. Her focus on two groups in particular
(Irish Catholics and Scottish Highlanders) has led her to examine the
process of regional and community development. Her research on the career
of Royal Navy surgeon, Richard Carr McClement, shed light on the links
between Irish Catholics and the later slave trade (Kehoe, 2013a).
McClement, whose diary formed part of the collections of Fort Augustus
Abbey in Inverness-Shire, had been posted to the West Africa Station where
he supported Britain's efforts to end the continuing trade by documenting
the suffering of slaves on ships captured from Portuguese and American
traders. The diary's discovery in the Scottish Catholic Archives (the Fort
Augustus papers were moved there after the facility's closure) led to
extended archival work by Kehoe in the Highland Archive Centre and other
local and national repositories. A range of little-known primary source
materials allowed global connections to be established between Irish
Catholics, Scottish Highlanders and plantation slavery - in particular,
the extent to which Highlanders used money from the West Indies to
establish philanthropic enterprises such as schools (the academies at
Inverness, Fortrose and Tain) and hospitals (the Royal Northern Infirmary)
and to assist in the preservation of the Gaelic language (the creation of
a Gaelic dictionary).

Research and public engagement was supported by a variety of income
streams from the Wellcome Trust, the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, Edinburgh Beltane Beacon and the Carnegie
Trust for the Universities of Scotland. Kehoe was most recently awarded a
grant by the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the project '"Our Worthy
Countrymen"?: Highland Development and the West Indies, 1750-1850' (Feb
2013 to Feb 2014) to fund further research on the relationship between
plantation slavery in the Caribbean and the socioeconomic development of
the Highlands. Kehoe's work on religious and ethnic peripheries (Irish,
Scottish and Highland Catholics) also has a well-developed transatlantic
context. She currently holds an honorary Research Associate position with
the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies, based at St
Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia). The materials collected over
the course of the research were used as the basis of an 86-page resource
pack on the Atlantic slave trade for use in schools across in the Highland
region.

NB. The project began in Spring 2011 but Kehoe moved to GCU on 4.12.11.
Some planning for the impact necessarily occurred whilst Kehoe was at the
University of the Highlands and Islands. GCU is claiming credit only for
research outputs and impact accruing since she commenced her contract with
us.

Kehoe, K., [Article] "Looking Back to Move Forward:
Slavery and the Highlands": A public engagement case study', Scottish
Local History, 87 (Dec 2013).

Details of the impact

Archival sources unearthed during research on the history
of religious and ethnic peripheries, the Atlantic economy and the slave
trade were employed in an exhibition - 'Looking Back
to Move Forward: Slavery and the Highlands' - at
the Highland Archives Centre (HAC), Inverness, between 7.12.11 and 7.2.12.
The exhibition was viewed by more than 400 people over twelve weeks
(confirmed by the Education and Outreach Coordinator at HAC). Professional
historians, archivists and community researchers worked with S6 pupils
from Inverness Royal Academy to build the exhibition and chart the
connections between the Atlantic slave trade and the Highlands and
Islands. The exhibition team included the Education and Outreach
Coordinator at HAC, the Head of History at Inverness Royal Academy, a
lecturer from the University of the Highlands and Islands, a Highland
councillor and researcher on Highland links with slavery. At the launch of
the exhibition, the Academy pupils spoke about what the project meant to
them and what they felt about working with the project team.
Representatives from the Africa Scotland Centre also attended and stressed
the importance of such projects in promoting contacts between communities
and in providing an opportunity for young Caribbean and African people in
Scotland to gain access to aspects of their history. In examining the
links between plantation slavery and the Highlands, young people were able
to get a sense of how many people in Britain's peripheries were central
actors in a system of wide-ranging economic change. The exhibition
demonstrated how local archival resources can be used to show Highland
pupils how the empire shaped the socio-economic development of their
region in a globalising world.
The exhibition subsequently won Kehoe the Edinburgh Beltane Beacon Award
for Public Engagement Challenge Award (for best project) in March 2012 and
the £2,000 prize money was spent on creating the 86-page school resource
pack, The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1770-1807 (2012-13). Kehoe
collected and digitised a range of primary materials relevant to the links
between Highlanders and slavery from a range of archives across Scotland
as well as from the National Archives in London. The selected sources were
supported by written commentaries by Kehoe who worked with the Education
and Outreach Coordinator of HAC, teachers from Inverness Royal Academy,
and four undergraduate students from GCU's Nineteenth-Century
Scotland module. The resource pack is
currently in use by secondary school teachers in the delivery of the
Atlantic Slave Trade topic in the National 4/5 Curriculum for Excellence
(History) in 29 Highland Schools (in both electronic and paper format).
The pack contains commentaries and lengthy extracts from primary sources
derived from figures such as George Inglis of Inverness, who had extensive
plantation and slave interests in Demerara, James Andrew Anderson, the
Greenock banker, and the anti-slave trade surgeon, Richard Carr McClement.
Kehoe subsequently delivered a workshop (13 Jun 2013) at Inverness Royal
Academy on the subject 'Democracy and Citizenship' in which she summarised
her research on British peripheries and used the 'Looking Back to Move
Forward: Slavery and the Highlands' project as a case study. She also gave
an interview as part of Radio Scotland's A Scot's History of
Britishness (Jul 2013) in which she discussed the connections
between the Irish and Scots Catholics and Britishness and the relationship
between slavery and Highland development (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01cvtqt).
The research and impacts were designed to link the Highland region to
debates about the role of peripheries in globalisation. Its four main
objectives were: (1) to bring current historical research into the
mainstream with a public exhibition; (2) to showcase how school pupils can
use local resources to create links between their communities and global
economies; (3) to demonstrate how universities can mentor community and
regional history projects relevant to discussions about sustainability;
and (4) to produce a history resource for schools that would have an
enduring impact in this emergent sub-field of academic research. The
pupils engaging with the primary sources provided in the pack will
continue indefinitely to gain a fuller understanding of the concept of
globalisation and how it has influenced the long-term development of their
region. Given the fact that youth unemployment is discouragingly high and
confidence levels low, Kehoe's rationale is that it is essential for
academics to reach out to local communities in this way and to use
research as a way of working with youth to inspire new thinking about
their place in a rapidly-changing global economy. In her recent article,
'Looking Back to Move Forward: Slavery and the Highlands: A public
engagement case study', Scottish Local
History, 87 (2013), Kehoe reflected on the project, stressing the
fundamental importance of public engagement.

Letter relating to schools Resource Pack from the
Social Studies Development Officer of the Highland Council (June 2013).

A Scot's History of
Britishness (Jul 2013), BBC Radio Scotland (in which Kehoe
discusses the connections between the Irish and Scots Catholics and
Britishness and the relationship between slavery and Highland
development) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01cvtqt.